aboriginal artist: George Hairbrush Tjungurrayi

View artwork by George Hairbrush Tjungurrayi

Born circa 1943 in the remote Western Desert, George Tjungurrayi first encountered the outside world at the age of seventeen. He embarked on a journey by foot from the Gibson Desert alongside three other Pintupi men, traveling eastward until they were intercepted by a truck near Mount Doreen. Shortly after arriving in Papunya in 1962, he became a guide for Jeremy Long’s welfare patrol unit. He later settled in West Camp, Papunya, where he began painting in 1976 under the encouragement of Nosepeg Tjupurrula. Tjungurrayi was among the pioneering artists of what would become the Aboriginal art movement.

Now in his 80s, George Tjungurrayi is one of the last remaining elder artists of the original generation. He continues to create large-scale works at a meticulous and measured pace. His paintings are held in prestigious collections both within Australia and internationally.

George Tjungurrayi has developed a distinctive minimalist and abstract painting style, characterized by meticulously executed transverse parallel lines that create a pulsating optical rhythm. His artworks depict ancestral journeys and ceremonial body paint motifs.

Professor Vivien Johnson has suggested that George’s striking imagery is drawn from the distinctive Western Desert style of ‘fluted’ carving: fine parallel lines incised into the wood and coated with ochres which embellished men’s ceremonial boomerangs and shields.

Career Highlights

 Solo Exhibitions

  • Paintings, Utopia Art, Sydney (2016)
  • Pulka Canvas, Utopia Art, Sydney at The Depot Gallery, Sydney (2013)
  • Space & Place, Utopia Art, Sydney (2011)
  • Between the Lines, Utopia Art, Sydney (2008)
  • Paintings from Mamultjulkulnga and Kirrimalunya, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne (2003)
  • Unforeseen 1989 to 2002, FireWorks Gallery, Brisbane (2003)
  • New Fields, Utopia Art, Sydney (2002)
  • First Solo Show, Utopia Art, Sydney (1997)

Selected Group Exhibitions

  • Abstraction of the World, Duddell’s x Biennale of Sydney, Hong Kong (2017)
  • Cornucopia, Utopia Art, Sydney (2016)
  • Sydney Contemporary, Carriageworks, Sydney (2015)
  • Sublime Point: The Landscape in Painting, Hazelhurst Regional Gallery & Arts Centre, Gymea (2014)
  • Volume One: MCA Collection, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney (2012)
  • 40 Years of Papunya Tula Art, Utopia Art, Sydney (2011)
  • Desert Country, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide (2010)
  • Western Desert Satellites, Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth (2006)

Collections

Tjungurrayi’s works are held in prominent national and international collections, including:

  • Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
  • Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney
  • Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide
  • Groninger Museum, Netherlands
  • Musée National des Arts d’Afrique et d’Océanie, Paris
  • National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
  • National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
  • Seattle Art Museum, Washington, USA
  • Supreme Court of the Northern Territory, Darwin
  • University of Virginia, Charlottesville, USA
  • Artbank, Australia
  • Holmes à Court Collection, Australia
  • The Kelton Foundation, USA